Mark Cuban Proposed Eliminating the Salary Cap Altogether

In a podcast interview, Billy Hunter broke the news that, during labor talks, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proposed something he dubs the “Game Changer”, in which the salary cap becomes a thing of the past in the NBA. From I am a GM comes the transcript: “Question: The owners seem like they want something bigger than a new labor deal. They want to create a new economic model for the league. What responsibility do you have to help them build that model? Billy Hunter: ‘Mark Cuban, ironically, came out with a structure that he called – ‘The Game Changer.’ We talked about moving in a different direction, in terms of no salary cap. We took that idea back into our room, and we in turn responded with something similar. I saw the reaction that he had to it, and 2 or 3 other owners in the room were really excited about it. Keep in mind, when you start talking about no salary cap. The salary cap has existed in the NBA for at least the last 30 years. It was the creation of David Stern. I don’t know if there was any push-back because of that. We were prepared to pursue that whole idea of going into a different direction.'”